Revolutionary Optimism amid Global Crises – 2023 Year In Review / 2024 predictions – Ep 151

Don: 00:00:13

This is Fortress On A Hill, with Henri, Danny, Kaygan,

Don: 00:00:16

Jo vonni, Shiloh, and Monisha

Jovanni: 00:00:18

Welcome, everyone, to Fortress On A Hill, a podcast about U.

Jovanni: 00:00:21

S.

Jovanni: 00:00:21

foreign policy, anti imperialism, skepticism, and the American way of war.

Jovanni: 00:00:27

I'm Jovanni.

Jovanni: 00:00:28

Thank you for being with us today.

Jovanni: 00:00:30

With me are my two co hosts, Monisha and Shiloh.

Jovanni: 00:00:36

How are you guys doing today?

Shiloh: 00:00:37

Hey Jovanni, I'm doing well.

Shiloh: 00:00:39

It's good to see you.

Monisha: 00:00:41

Yeah, same here.

Monisha: 00:00:43

It's good to see both of you.

Jovanni: 00:00:45

Yep, today we reflect on 2023, the political dynamics that

Jovanni: 00:00:49

happened, the continuation of the endless wars, the shift in geopolitics,

Jovanni: 00:00:55

and anything else that comes to mind.

Jovanni: 00:00:57

As we reflect, I look forward to the new year.

Jovanni: 00:01:00

We do so with the knowledge that a great crime is being committed

Jovanni: 00:01:04

against the people of Palestine, while the world watches and feels

Jovanni: 00:01:07

powerless to do anything about it.

Jovanni: 00:01:09

Guys, let's each mention three or four things that impacted us,

Jovanni: 00:01:13

or impacted you, and, and uh, or that you are focusing on 2023.

Jovanni: 00:01:18

And uh, three things, or four things that uh, that you forecast for 2024,

Jovanni: 00:01:24

or that you look forward to in 2024.

Jovanni: 00:01:26

How'd that sound?

Jovanni: 00:01:27

Sounds golden.

Shiloh: 00:01:28

I think I'll be kind of brief, but just crawling,

Shiloh: 00:01:32

crawling to the end of 2023 here.

Shiloh: 00:01:35

The three things I'm going to mention are kind of gonna, uh, Build into Sinceri, but

Shiloh: 00:01:42

the first one is like, um, George Santos being expelled from, from Congress that

Shiloh: 00:01:50

was impactful one because it, it just showed the, like, circus that is the U.

Shiloh: 00:01:57

S.

Shiloh: 00:01:57

Congress and just how easy it is to, even down to his name.

Shiloh: 00:02:03

And somehow he's still like, got voted in and was making laws that impact everyone.

Shiloh: 00:02:09

So that.

Shiloh: 00:02:12

Yeah, it was lighthearted in ways and then the, the also heavy in that like

Shiloh: 00:02:19

this clown, this queen of a person was actually making moves that impact

Shiloh: 00:02:24

people and yeah, um, and then the, the second thing, um, for 2023, um, was

Shiloh: 00:02:35

just, yeah, just kind of a little bit of frustration around the supposed, as

Shiloh: 00:02:41

I said, Just this system that we have, like, not being able to, so far, some

Shiloh: 00:02:47

states are starting to, but not being able to block, uh, Trump from, from

Shiloh: 00:02:53

running and being the front runner, um, which will go into the forecasting

Shiloh: 00:02:57

for 2024, I think more and more, like, yeah, just feeling kind of powerless, um,

Shiloh: 00:03:05

powerless against the machine that is U.

Shiloh: 00:03:08

S.

Shiloh: 00:03:08

politics.

Shiloh: 00:03:09

Um, and then, yeah, what we're all, what we're all kind of, uh, the sadness

Shiloh: 00:03:16

that we're all swimming in, I think, right now is just the genocide and

Shiloh: 00:03:20

ethnic cleansing of, of our siblings in Palestine, our dear friends that are

Shiloh: 00:03:25

Palestinian, dear friends that are anti Zionist Jews, and just all of that.

Shiloh: 00:03:31

Yes, heaviness all around, um, and again, just feeling powerless, um,

Shiloh: 00:03:38

that my money is going into this, this harm and this violence, um,

Shiloh: 00:03:44

my, my tax money and all of that.

Shiloh: 00:03:47

Yeah, I think it, it is a shift that, you know, the world's

Shiloh: 00:03:51

eyes are, are being opened.

Shiloh: 00:03:52

I know a lot of, a lot of places and a lot of people were

Shiloh: 00:03:56

already eyes wide open to U.

Shiloh: 00:03:58

S.

Shiloh: 00:03:58

imperialism.

Shiloh: 00:03:59

Um, but the, I think the Western world in particular is

Shiloh: 00:04:04

becoming more aware and seeing.

Shiloh: 00:04:08

Seeing this just, yeah, uh, right in our, in our faces on our phones.

Shiloh: 00:04:14

It's hard to, hard to ignore the impacts that the U.

Shiloh: 00:04:18

S.

Shiloh: 00:04:18

has around the world.

Shiloh: 00:04:20

So those are the, those are the three things.

Shiloh: 00:04:22

Oh, I guess I could get into one event that really impacted me, um, just last

Shiloh: 00:04:29

month, uh, myself in a large group of, uh, Anti imperialist, anti militarist

Shiloh: 00:04:37

veterans made a trip out to Washington, D.

Shiloh: 00:04:40

C.

Shiloh: 00:04:42

to speak out against the genocide in Gaza and to call for a ceasefire and we

Shiloh: 00:04:49

got to meet with, um, The, like, actual legit, uh, lawmakers who, you know,

Shiloh: 00:04:57

who actually give a shit about people.

Shiloh: 00:04:58

Um, it's a very small handful of them.

Shiloh: 00:05:01

Um, but we got to meet with, um, Rashida Tlaib and she just, yeah, we shared just

Shiloh: 00:05:11

One of the best hugs I've ever experienced in my life and it just felt, it was

Shiloh: 00:05:15

just really impactful and um, sharing my story with her and her sharing a bit

Shiloh: 00:05:20

of herself with us was something that, yeah, that I keep, that I keep with me.

Shiloh: 00:05:26

So, those are the, yeah, those are the three.

Shiloh: 00:05:29

Three quick things that I'm thinking about.

Jovanni: 00:05:32

Did you guys occupy a congressional office as well?

Shiloh: 00:05:36

We did, yeah.

Shiloh: 00:05:37

We went to a senator after meeting with Representative Tlaib and some others.

Shiloh: 00:05:44

Senator Gillibrand's office.

Shiloh: 00:05:46

She's a senator from New York who's very, uh, very much tied to

Shiloh: 00:05:51

AIPAC and, and Israeli funding.

Shiloh: 00:05:54

And this was the day before they all left for Veterans Day weekend.

Shiloh: 00:06:00

And there's about 15 veterans in her office.

Shiloh: 00:06:04

And.

Shiloh: 00:06:06

She refused to meet with us, refused to even have a phone call with us,

Shiloh: 00:06:11

um, and her, yeah, her staff was less than kind, and just not trying

Shiloh: 00:06:18

to hear anything we wanted to say.

Shiloh: 00:06:21

We occupied her office, uh, for a few hours.

Shiloh: 00:06:25

A good handful of us were arrested, um, just trying to get a phone call

Shiloh: 00:06:32

with her, um, and uh, oh, what's that clown's name, from, uh, from

Shiloh: 00:06:40

Pennsylvania came out mocking us, um, waving an Israeli flag and just laughing

Shiloh: 00:06:47

as we were being arrested and just.

Shiloh: 00:06:49

Just showing his ass to everyone, um, yeah.

Shiloh: 00:06:53

And then the next day, you know, it's just like, such a, such a slap in the

Shiloh: 00:06:58

face to see Senator Gillibrand's social media the next day, just like shaking

Shiloh: 00:07:02

hands and being all chummy with a bunch of, bunch of veterans, because it

Shiloh: 00:07:06

was the day before Veterans Day, but.

Jovanni: 00:07:09

Couldn't be bothered.

Jovanni: 00:07:10

That's a big tall um, um, was he a senator, congressman?

Shiloh: 00:07:15

Yeah, he's a senator from Pennsylvania and I'll look up

Jovanni: 00:07:18

his name.

Jovanni: 00:07:19

He walks around with like a hoodie and everything, he's supposed to be

Jovanni: 00:07:21

like a, like a worker's man, person,

Shiloh: 00:07:24

whatever.

Shiloh: 00:07:25

He's a man of the people and that's what he ran on as a democrat, uh,

Shiloh: 00:07:29

but he's actually the, Largest recipient of, uh, of J Street,

Shiloh: 00:07:35

which is a shell company for APAC.

Jovanni: 00:07:39

John Fetterman.

Shiloh: 00:07:39

John Fetterman, thank you.

Shiloh: 00:07:41

Yeah.

Shiloh: 00:07:41

Yeah.

Shiloh: 00:07:44

He didn't want to talk to us.

Shiloh: 00:07:45

Yeah.

Jovanni: 00:07:46

So, uh, what are the things that you're looking forward to in, uh, in 2024?

Shiloh: 00:07:49

Oh, the things I'm looking forward to in 2024?

Shiloh: 00:07:53

A few things.

Shiloh: 00:07:53

Yeah, I don't know if looking forward to is the right word.

Shiloh: 00:07:57

I guess anxiously awaiting this whole election season and all the

Shiloh: 00:08:02

shitstorm that that's gonna be, is Trump gonna be able to run?

Shiloh: 00:08:05

I don't know.

Shiloh: 00:08:06

We don't really know yet.

Shiloh: 00:08:08

Um, he can't run in Colorado apparently, or he's not gonna

Shiloh: 00:08:11

be on the ballot at least.

Shiloh: 00:08:13

Um, are the Democrats really gonna put up with Uh, Joe Biden, who's

Shiloh: 00:08:18

older than the state of Israel.

Shiloh: 00:08:20

I don't know.

Shiloh: 00:08:22

Like that's, that's something to see.

Shiloh: 00:08:24

Um, I think it's just going to be.

Shiloh: 00:08:27

The biggest shitstorm we've ever seen as far as an election year goes.

Shiloh: 00:08:31

Um, uh, something else I'm looking, I guess I am looking forward to is just the

Shiloh: 00:08:37

movement that the BDS movement is making.

Shiloh: 00:08:40

Um, I think people are starting to see like that.

Shiloh: 00:08:45

Individual like consumer boycotts and divestments and sanctions really

Shiloh: 00:08:50

do hold power, um, and yeah, that, that movement's getting a lot of

Shiloh: 00:08:57

traction when a lot of people would kind of write them off beforehand.

Shiloh: 00:09:01

Um, and then another thing I'm looking forward to is just the, we're seeing

Shiloh: 00:09:06

the veil like kind of ripped off as it was being like slowly pulled back,

Shiloh: 00:09:11

but now it's being ripped off on U.

Shiloh: 00:09:12

S.

Shiloh: 00:09:13

imperialism and, uh, and that is exciting and terrifying, I think,

Shiloh: 00:09:19

at the same time, but lots of world shifts happening and yeah.

Shiloh: 00:09:24

I feel like it's just a snowball right now, we're snow, snow

Shiloh: 00:09:28

plowing through to 2024 right now.

Jovanni: 00:09:32

On that, on that, uh, BDS, it's also not only Israeli

Jovanni: 00:09:36

products that are, that people are boycotting, but also American products.

Jovanni: 00:09:39

I mean, you saw that they hit that, um, that, uh, with the

Jovanni: 00:09:44

coffee place, uh, Starbucks.

Jovanni: 00:09:48

Starbucks took a big hit, globally, uh, for their support of Israel and,

Jovanni: 00:09:52

uh, I believe McDonald's as well.

Jovanni: 00:09:53

I believe they're closing, I believe, uh, they closed Starbucks

Jovanni: 00:09:57

or McDonald's restaurants in Malaysia and in other countries because they

Jovanni: 00:10:01

were, because of the financial hit that they were, they were getting.

Jovanni: 00:10:04

Because people, people don't realize that although they're private companies,

Jovanni: 00:10:09

right, um, But they represent the U.

Jovanni: 00:10:12

S.

Jovanni: 00:10:12

overseas, you know, so when you're overseas, you go to Starbucks, you

Jovanni: 00:10:16

know, you are, you're going, uh, and the United States is a brand.

Jovanni: 00:10:21

America is a brand overseas, and people, you know, people, uh, It promotes

Jovanni: 00:10:25

itself as a brand and people think of the United States as jeans and, and hip

Jovanni: 00:10:30

hop and, and that's why particularly young people, when they think about the

Jovanni: 00:10:33

United States, that's when they think about, um, pop culture, pop music,

Jovanni: 00:10:38

shoes, um, Starbucks, um, McDonald's, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, right?

Jovanni: 00:10:43

So getting that, so those become symbolism of the United States.

Jovanni: 00:10:46

So, um, because of U.

Jovanni: 00:10:48

S.

Jovanni: 00:10:48

support, you know, those companies are also getting hit.

Jovanni: 00:10:51

You know, as a way for people to pretty much, you know, show their support or, you

Jovanni: 00:10:56

know, or their anger of what's happening.

Shiloh: 00:11:00

If only we could boycott the weapons companies, but we're

Shiloh: 00:11:03

not the ones using them, so we can't really boycott that.

Shiloh: 00:11:07

Yeah.

Shiloh: 00:11:08

Yeah, lots of movement in the BDS movement.

Shiloh: 00:11:11

Uh, lots of gains being made there and just like, yeah, it's just like, uh, with

Shiloh: 00:11:18

social media and whatnot, you can like really quickly get some momentum going.

Shiloh: 00:11:24

Like as soon as, as soon as, uh, yes, uh, a company gets shown to be

Shiloh: 00:11:30

a supporter of Israel or, or the U.

Shiloh: 00:11:34

S.

Shiloh: 00:11:34

Like you're saying, it just gets shut down by the people real quick.

Shiloh: 00:11:38

So that's really exciting to, to come into our power as, as people

Shiloh: 00:11:43

and to see like that we do actually through consumerism, but we do

Shiloh: 00:11:47

actually have power in some ways.

Shiloh: 00:11:50

I think that's always important to, to have examples of.

Monisha: 00:11:54

There's some really important things, Shiloh, that you touched on,

Monisha: 00:11:58

particularly around the veil being lifted.

Monisha: 00:12:01

Um, and the topic of elections, um, so yeah, those are things that I'm

Monisha: 00:12:08

definitely looking forward to talking to about, but also talking to, you know,

Monisha: 00:12:14

because those are things that, um, we're all going to be facing the impacts of.

Monisha: 00:12:21

Great synopsis, great analysis accompanying your, your, um, I don't

Monisha: 00:12:27

even want to call them highlights because, They're lowlights.

Monisha: 00:12:32

Yeah.

Monisha: 00:12:33

Exactly.

Monisha: 00:12:33

Um, yeah, yeah, it's, uh, but I really appreciate too how you, you still have

Monisha: 00:12:42

some hopefulness about things that can happen, you know, the potential that

Monisha: 00:12:48

exists, um, in what's happening right now.

Monisha: 00:12:50

And I think that that's really important.

Shiloh: 00:12:53

Yeah.

Shiloh: 00:12:53

It's really important.

Shiloh: 00:12:54

If you, if you don't have hope, you kind of.

Shiloh: 00:12:57

You don't have anything.

Shiloh: 00:12:58

Like, hope is a, is an action.

Shiloh: 00:13:01

It's a discipline.

Shiloh: 00:13:03

And it's really hard to hold on to those threads sometimes.

Shiloh: 00:13:08

But if you don't have hope, you don't have, you don't

Shiloh: 00:13:11

have anything at that point.

Monisha: 00:13:14

Yeah.

Monisha: 00:13:14

And I like, um, also how you're not approaching hope in a bypassing way.

Monisha: 00:13:23

Um, you know, where I think not to be judgmental of folks, because

Monisha: 00:13:28

we never know where people are.

Monisha: 00:13:30

Um, but I think especially now with what's happening, you know, we see a lot of

Monisha: 00:13:35

folks sticking their head in the sand.

Monisha: 00:13:38

Um, and needing to maintain, like, some toxic positivity.

Monisha: 00:13:42

I just want peace, you know, and all that, without, um, participating in

Monisha: 00:13:47

the creation of that, you know, making sacrifices to create peace, uh, and

Monisha: 00:13:52

whatnot, like, even beyond boycotts, even in their social circles, speaking

Monisha: 00:13:57

out, you know, actually confronting reality, um, So, yeah, I think, um, the

Monisha: 00:14:04

other, I guess that's something else that I gather from, from what you've

Monisha: 00:14:07

shared is the, the need to balance that hope with action, um, to not use.

Monisha: 00:14:12

Like the whole idea of spiritual bypassing of, you know, all of that that comes with

Monisha: 00:14:17

wanting to, to achieve peace sometimes, um, people use it as a, a, a way of

Monisha: 00:14:25

avoiding, but there's no point to me.

Monisha: 00:14:27

There's no point in, in holding onto hope if we're not doing the thing

Monisha: 00:14:32

that creates what we're hoping for.

Monisha: 00:14:34

Yeah.

Monisha: 00:14:35

Okay.

Monisha: 00:14:36

That's my spiel.

Jovanni: 00:14:38

Absolutely.

Jovanni: 00:14:39

MMonisha.

Jovanni: 00:14:40

Monisha,you want to go?

Monisha: 00:14:41

Sure.

Monisha: 00:14:42

Yeah, thanks.

Monisha: 00:14:43

So, so 2023 for me, obviously being here in Puerto Rico, I'm really paying

Monisha: 00:14:49

more attention to what's happening here.

Monisha: 00:14:51

Um, you know, the, the.

Monisha: 00:14:54

Continuation of the Fiscal Control Board's undermining of human rights in Puerto

Monisha: 00:15:00

Rico via the austerity measures that are being implemented via the interventionism,

Monisha: 00:15:06

um, politically, economically, you know, through the economic dictatorship that

Monisha: 00:15:14

we're under, um, through them, a lot of what people have seen happening in

Monisha: 00:15:21

Ukraine because of the, like, you Natalie Jaresko was the, imposed as the finance

Monisha: 00:15:30

minister after the coup, um, and brought all of the austerity measures, really

Monisha: 00:15:35

hurt the people, the working people of Ukraine, part of the puppet government.

Monisha: 00:15:40

And we have a similar thing.

Monisha: 00:15:41

She actually was assigned to be the, the head of the fiscal control

Monisha: 00:15:47

board here in Puerto Rico for a period of time until recently.

Monisha: 00:15:50

Um, um, I think it was after.

Monisha: 00:15:53

The, the violence in Ukraine began was when her term ended, um, but implementing

Monisha: 00:16:01

basically the same things to strangle the people, privatizing everything, all

Monisha: 00:16:07

of everything that should be public, that should be accessible to everyone,

Monisha: 00:16:11

the basic needs and human rights that we have, um, privatizing all of it in the

Monisha: 00:16:15

name of paying off the, the illegal debt.

Monisha: 00:16:18

Um, that the people of Puerto Rico did not, um, have a say in the criminal

Monisha: 00:16:24

government and the bondholders and the investors and everybody else created.

Monisha: 00:16:29

We had no part in that, but we're the ones suffering from that.

Monisha: 00:16:33

Um, so that's been a big deal in 2023 here in Puerto Rico, the collapse

Monisha: 00:16:37

of our health care system, the collapse of our education system.

Monisha: 00:16:42

Um, pretty much the, the politicians that are there now in regardless of their

Monisha: 00:16:49

stance on, on, um, uh, status are for the most part, um, for privatization,

Monisha: 00:16:59

for, you know, all of these things because they're benefiting from it.

Monisha: 00:17:03

Um, there's a lot of corruption.

Monisha: 00:17:06

The Independence Party, not as much.

Monisha: 00:17:08

Um, but there's still, you know, no political entity is perfect regardless

Monisha: 00:17:13

of the, the aspiration that they hold.

Monisha: 00:17:16

Um, so, so yeah, there's that.

Monisha: 00:17:20

Um, we're still a colony.

Monisha: 00:17:22

Um, the Status Act, another version of the Status Act came out and it's

Monisha: 00:17:28

currently, I think, I haven't checked in a couple of days on what What

Monisha: 00:17:33

the status of the Status Act is.

Monisha: 00:17:35

I believe it passed the House and was in the Senate.

Monisha: 00:17:37

Um, recently, a group called New York Boricua Resistance did a webinar on it.

Monisha: 00:17:44

And I discussed it as, uh, we critically analyzed it as an element

Monisha: 00:17:50

of hybrid warfare, lawfare, political warfare, psychological warfare.

Monisha: 00:17:56

We talked about economic warfare, a little bit involved with that, but,

Monisha: 00:18:01

um, So that's the conversation around Puerto Rico's status gets passed

Monisha: 00:18:06

around, um, usually doesn't move.

Monisha: 00:18:10

Um, the difference between this piece of legislation, proposed legislation, and

Monisha: 00:18:15

ones in the past is it's supposed to, to make the The next plebiscite that we have

Monisha: 00:18:21

of our status binding, the ones, all of them leading up to this point have been

Monisha: 00:18:26

non binding, which basically just means that, um, for anybody who's not familiar

Monisha: 00:18:31

with how the supposed so called process of decolonization of Puerto Rico goes

Monisha: 00:18:39

with the United States, um, there is a, uh, Pretty much rigged, um, vote that

Monisha: 00:18:48

takes place every so often where the, the people of Puerto Rico, and I'm saying this

Monisha: 00:18:55

with air quotes and a lot of sarcasm, the people of Puerto Rico vote on whether or

Monisha: 00:18:59

not they want to either join the United States as a state, stay as a colony,

Monisha: 00:19:04

which according to the failure of the UN, they, they consider us conveniently

Monisha: 00:19:10

to be a self governing territory, which is a complete lie, Why, um, or to

Monisha: 00:19:15

become an independent sovereign nation, um, which terrifies the, the, the U.

Monisha: 00:19:23

S.

Monisha: 00:19:23

empire, um, for some reason.

Monisha: 00:19:27

The status act demands in a sense that the next plebiscite vote is binding.

Monisha: 00:19:35

Because Congress doesn't have to listen to what we say.

Monisha: 00:19:40

Congress ultimately, at the end of the day, makes the decision on what

Monisha: 00:19:43

happens with Puerto Rico, regardless of how any type of voting process

Monisha: 00:19:48

takes place here in Puerto Rico.

Monisha: 00:19:50

So to me, I personally don't have a whole lot of faith in this process.

Monisha: 00:19:56

I don't trust the United States and no one should on the planet.

Monisha: 00:20:00

Um, we see how.

Monisha: 00:20:02

They have consistently, um, disregarded treaties.

Monisha: 00:20:09

We see how they're behaving now.

Monisha: 00:20:11

We see how they've behaved since their inception.

Monisha: 00:20:14

Um, so, yeah, but that's, that's what's happening.

Monisha: 00:20:18

So there's going to be some conversation about that in the U.

Monisha: 00:20:21

S.

Monisha: 00:20:22

Um, voters most likely will not be exposed to a lot of those conversations.

Monisha: 00:20:26

They won't be aware of what's happening.

Monisha: 00:20:28

Supposedly there is, uh, supposed to be greater oversight over

Monisha: 00:20:32

the voter education process.

Monisha: 00:20:35

Uh, which is supposed to more effectively educate potential voters in Puerto Rico

Monisha: 00:20:40

about the various status options, what are the implications of these options,

Monisha: 00:20:45

and what are the processes involved in, if any of them were voted on.

Monisha: 00:20:49

For example, if Puerto Ricans, if the Puerto Ricans who chose to participate

Monisha: 00:20:56

in the plebiscite vote voted in favor majority, uh, for independence,

Monisha: 00:21:02

then there has to be an entire plan.

Monisha: 00:21:04

They have to be educated on that.

Monisha: 00:21:06

Beforehand, and the same with statehood and etc.

Monisha: 00:21:10

So there's that, um, the third thing, obviously, is Palestine, um, and through,

Monisha: 00:21:19

through this process, I've been kind of peripherally involved in the BDS movement

Monisha: 00:21:26

since, um, right after COVID started, um, and At the time I was involved

Monisha: 00:21:33

with a group called Psychologists for Social Responsibility and there was

Monisha: 00:21:38

a huge effort from within that group from some psychologists, not many,

Monisha: 00:21:43

unfortunately there's still a lot of Zionist influence in, in, inside that

Monisha: 00:21:47

group, um, who, who for a long time really struggled to educate, inform,

Monisha: 00:21:53

and move the group to support BDS.

Monisha: 00:21:55

And finally that was achieved and I got to be part of, of that, um,

Monisha: 00:22:01

the tail end of, of achieving that.

Monisha: 00:22:04

However, um, the, the American Psychological Association, uh, uh, for

Monisha: 00:22:09

folks who are not aware is basically the psychological warfare arm of the U.

Monisha: 00:22:13

S.

Monisha: 00:22:13

defense.

Monisha: 00:22:14

It is a defense industry, um, and it is Zionist heavy.

Monisha: 00:22:19

And so, um, I was involved with APA for a while, and right now there's

Monisha: 00:22:28

a lot of heat coming down toward the psychologists, and there has been a lot

Monisha: 00:22:32

of harassment, just like in, in most academic spaces, in most professional

Monisha: 00:22:36

spaces, um, where Zionism is king, they have made life Very difficult and, and

Monisha: 00:22:44

scary at times, um, for psychologists as well, who are themselves Palestinian,

Monisha: 00:22:50

who have been outspoken in support of BDS, and especially lately who have

Monisha: 00:22:56

been outspoken, um, against the genocide and calling for ceasefire, et cetera.

Monisha: 00:23:01

So I've been paying a lot of attention to that, um, and, It's

Monisha: 00:23:05

been interesting how, I think in the antiwar movement, I know there's not

Monisha: 00:23:11

a lot of attention given to the APA.

Monisha: 00:23:15

I think there's not a lot of information.

Monisha: 00:23:17

I know I'm constantly trying to educate people on this and trying to,

Monisha: 00:23:20

to organize, um, a targeted response to the APA with protests, um, with

Monisha: 00:23:27

social media campaigns, et cetera.

Monisha: 00:23:30

But there's not a whole lot of investment from the peace movement in that direction,

Monisha: 00:23:33

which I think is It's an issue that needs to be corrected because we're

Monisha: 00:23:38

really missing an opportunity to go after another weapons manufacturer.

Monisha: 00:23:44

The American Psychological Association needs to be viewed

Monisha: 00:23:47

as a weapons manufacturer.

Monisha: 00:23:48

Psychologists are contracted at these, these more well known weapons

Monisha: 00:23:54

manufacturing facilities, companies.

Monisha: 00:23:58

Especially in relationship to the development of artificial intelligence

Monisha: 00:24:01

and autonomous weapons, um, they're involved in human engineering, which

Monisha: 00:24:04

is now called human factor engineering.

Monisha: 00:24:07

There's a whole lot, there's a whole lot to that history.

Monisha: 00:24:10

Um, so, yeah, that's something that I'm still trying to help get

Monisha: 00:24:16

folks to, to see, so that it can be added into a lot of the organizing

Monisha: 00:24:21

effort, organizing efforts that are.

Monisha: 00:24:24

are currently underway.

Monisha: 00:24:25

Um, and the, the fourth thing is, um, like what Shiloh was

Monisha: 00:24:31

mentioning about, oh, no, sorry.

Monisha: 00:24:34

This, it's the Zone of Peace campaign that the Black Alliance

Monisha: 00:24:37

for Peace has initiated.

Monisha: 00:24:39

If folks are not familiar with what's happening, um, always in

Monisha: 00:24:44

the Western Hemisphere with regard to Latin America, um, and U.

Monisha: 00:24:49

S.

Monisha: 00:24:49

policy toward Latin America, the Monroe Doctrine, all the various implementations

Monisha: 00:24:53

of that, the militarization of Latin America to serve the interests of U.

Monisha: 00:24:57

S.

Monisha: 00:24:57

imperialism, and so on and so forth, um, the, Jovanni, what's the, FALAC

Monisha: 00:25:04

puts out a statement, but I can't remember the, what the acronym means.

Monisha: 00:25:08

I For CELAC.

Jovanni: 00:25:10

CELAC is the it's a community of Latin american and Caribbean states.

Monisha: 00:25:15

Okay, thank you.

Monisha: 00:25:16

So CELAC, the community of Latin American and Caribbean states, consistently

Monisha: 00:25:20

puts out a statement about creating the Americas as a zone of peace, calling for

Monisha: 00:25:26

the Americas to become a zone of peace.

Monisha: 00:25:29

It stops there at the statement, um, and so the Black Alliance for Peace took the

Monisha: 00:25:36

initiative to start, um, kind of like a coalition, I guess, um, but around

Monisha: 00:25:45

really helping to encourage and, and, um, Organized grassroots efforts toward

Monisha: 00:25:52

creating a zone of peace, starting with the people where the power is, like

Monisha: 00:25:55

Shiloh was saying, um, rather than leaving it up to politicians and their, their

Monisha: 00:26:01

own interests and like, performative solidarity, et cetera, et cetera.

Monisha: 00:26:05

Um, you know, statements are great, but then we have to actually do things.

Monisha: 00:26:09

So.

Monisha: 00:26:10

So, Black Lives for Peace with the Zone of Peace campaign is actually

Monisha: 00:26:13

doing something and, um, the org that I'm involved in, Soli Puerto Rico, um,

Monisha: 00:26:19

we're one of the founding, um, like, orgs to, not founding the, the campaign,

Monisha: 00:26:25

but to join it and endorse, endorse it, um, and it's been really great to, to

Monisha: 00:26:33

Connect with others, um, throughout Latin America, throughout the Americas, um,

Monisha: 00:26:38

including North America, and talk about, you know, how can we, um, as peoples,

Monisha: 00:26:45

um, united with the, the goal, you know, we all want to live in peace and what

Monisha: 00:26:50

does that look like in our daily lives?

Monisha: 00:26:52

What can we do to achieve that?

Monisha: 00:26:55

And there are seven core demands to the campaign so far, um, to dismantle

Monisha: 00:27:04

SOUTHCOM, shutting down all of the U.

Monisha: 00:27:07

S.

Monisha: 00:27:07

military bases in the region, ending U.

Monisha: 00:27:10

S.

Monisha: 00:27:10

NATO military exercises in the region, disbanding U.

Monisha: 00:27:13

S.

Monisha: 00:27:13

sponsored state terrorist training facilities like WINSEC, Western

Monisha: 00:27:17

Hemispheric Institute for Security Cooperation, which some folks may know

Monisha: 00:27:21

more as the School of the Americas.

Monisha: 00:27:24

Oppose military intervention in Haiti, return Guantanamo to Cuba,

Monisha: 00:27:29

and to end all illegal sanctions and blockades of states in our region.

Monisha: 00:27:34

To include all economic warfare, lawfare, and to recognize and support sovereignty.

Monisha: 00:27:41

So I think this is a really important campaign.

Monisha: 00:27:43

Um, I think it's important that it is being led by the Black Alliance for Peace.

Monisha: 00:27:48

Um, and the, I think the capacity for this campaign to really affect, um,

Monisha: 00:27:57

foundational change, not necessarily superficial change, but I think that the,

Monisha: 00:28:02

the potential for foundational change to, to systems, um, in our region that

Monisha: 00:28:07

govern, uh, how, what happens in our region now, um, I think that this has

Monisha: 00:28:12

the potential for upending those systems.

Monisha: 00:28:15

Um, so that leads me into what I'm hopeful for for 2024 is that this campaign

Monisha: 00:28:23

grows, that there's more involvement, um, from people that we're able to

Monisha: 00:28:29

really connect the dots more intimately and in a more human way of how U.

Monisha: 00:28:34

S.

Monisha: 00:28:34

imperialism operates in our region and that we can employ, you know, a

Monisha: 00:28:39

lot of the same principles that exist in, um, and organizing in the U.

Monisha: 00:28:45

S.

Monisha: 00:28:45

about like amplifying particular voices over others and so on and so forth and

Monisha: 00:28:49

that you know to me this gives me a lot of hope that those of us who are

Monisha: 00:28:53

in the global south area of our region who are the ones you know not only us

Monisha: 00:28:59

obviously but the the nations trapped the turtle island nations trapped inside

Monisha: 00:29:04

the the arbitrary borders of the U.

Monisha: 00:29:06

S.

Monisha: 00:29:07

um but that you know This will give us the opportunity to see each other,

Monisha: 00:29:16

to humanize one another, to be able to reach each other in ways that imperialism

Monisha: 00:29:21

tries to stop us from doing, and to, to really, um, build our collective power.

Monisha: 00:29:28

More meaningfully, um, and more tangibly, um, so that we can

Monisha: 00:29:34

achieve those, those demands.

Monisha: 00:29:36

Um, oh, I should also mention the objectives, um, of the campaign.

Monisha: 00:29:43

So, there's three.

Monisha: 00:29:45

The first is to build a people's That's plural.

Monisha: 00:29:48

A people centered campaign that coordinates anti imperialist, anti

Monisha: 00:29:51

war, and pro peace organizations, political parties, labor and social

Monisha: 00:29:55

justice orgs, as well as movements across our region to move our

Monisha: 00:29:58

Americas toward building alternative institutions and centers of power.

Monisha: 00:30:02

Number two, strengthen an America's wide consciousness

Monisha: 00:30:05

among the peoples of the region.

Monisha: 00:30:07

And number three, established peoples centered America's wide coordinating

Monisha: 00:30:10

structures that would facilitate the successful expulsion of the US EU NATO

Monisha: 00:30:15

axis of domination from our region.

Monisha: 00:30:18

Um, so those are very big goals, but I think that They're achievable

Monisha: 00:30:23

if we can organize ourselves well, um, so that brings me to the second

Monisha: 00:30:29

thing that I'm hopeful for is that, um, particularly for folks in the U.

Monisha: 00:30:33

S.

Monisha: 00:30:33

who, like Shiloh, you were mentioning the kind of like awakening that's

Monisha: 00:30:36

happening, um, in a more accelerated way now, um, that, that shredding of

Monisha: 00:30:41

the veil, um, I hope that that continues so that in such a way as to help people

Monisha: 00:30:50

see that the electoral politic aspect of organizing is not where we need to

Monisha: 00:30:55

be putting all of our attention, um, because it's not where we need to be.

Monisha: 00:31:01

There are so many other, uh, entry points.

Monisha: 00:31:06

There are so many other, like, strategically valuable places that

Monisha: 00:31:10

we need to be putting our energy.

Monisha: 00:31:13

Um, when you mentioned about, like, we can't boycott the weapons manufacturers

Monisha: 00:31:18

because we're not buying them.

Monisha: 00:31:19

We can boycott them by organizing the workers.

Monisha: 00:31:24

To remove their labor from those places.

Monisha: 00:31:27

Right?

Monisha: 00:31:27

So in that way, we don't have the power as consumers, but

Monisha: 00:31:30

we have that power as people.

Monisha: 00:31:32

We have that power as, as people who are economically suppressed,

Monisha: 00:31:36

oppressed and repressed.

Monisha: 00:31:37

Um, um, so yeah, and I think too, like, I'm hopeful that the, the weaponization of

Monisha: 00:31:47

identity politics by the imperial state.

Monisha: 00:31:50

is one of those parts of the veil that gets shredded because, like, if we turn

Monisha: 00:31:56

a critical eye toward recent years, like, let's turn The entire time that Trump

Monisha: 00:32:02

was running in his first campaign, people were, like, full speed organizing against

Monisha: 00:32:10

it, because so many of us could see the fascism, we could see it, we were living

Monisha: 00:32:16

it, you know, and we knew, we knew what was coming down the pipes, and we were

Monisha: 00:32:19

doing everything we could to stop it, in all of the ways that we knew how.

Monisha: 00:32:24

And look where we are still, you know.

Monisha: 00:32:28

So that's, that's probably one of my biggest hopes for 2024 for the U.

Monisha: 00:32:34

S.

Monisha: 00:32:34

in particular is that folks will see that, um, we need to shift our

Monisha: 00:32:39

tactics in how we organize ourselves and how we relate to each other, um,

Monisha: 00:32:44

particularly folks who align more or less, um, who May not yet be in a place.

Monisha: 00:32:54

We have to be realistic about how things are in the US.

Monisha: 00:32:57

Racially, the violence that's there, etc.

Monisha: 00:33:00

It's going to be hard for folks to go into One of the weapons manufacturing

Monisha: 00:33:06

places that is primarily employed by right wing thinking, you know, by

Monisha: 00:33:16

homophobic, transphobic, racist, white supremacist mindsets, that's going to

Monisha: 00:33:21

be really challenging and it's going to take a lot A lot from us to, to go

Monisha: 00:33:25

into those places and try to humanize those workers to, to reach the goal.

Monisha: 00:33:31

Um, but I hope that that's something that we can arrive at, and then

Monisha: 00:33:34

the last thing, I hope that like Jovanni, when you were talking about

Monisha: 00:33:37

people are starting to boycott U.

Monisha: 00:33:38

S.

Monisha: 00:33:39

products now, expanding the BDS, I definitely think that that should happen.

Monisha: 00:33:44

Um, I hope it happens sooner rather than later.

Monisha: 00:33:47

And I really hope that, like, I'm, I'm so incredibly moved and encouraged

Monisha: 00:33:53

by South Africa, um, raising the issue of genocide to the ICC.

Monisha: 00:33:59

Um, and calling for Israel to be, you know, U.

Monisha: 00:34:02

S.

Monisha: 00:34:02

needs to be right up in there with them and, um, if they could be retroactively

Monisha: 00:34:08

charged for all the war crimes, all, all of them, that would be, that

Monisha: 00:34:15

would just be like the greatest gift.

Monisha: 00:34:16

It's not going to happen like that, of course, but, um, yeah, I hope that

Monisha: 00:34:21

more countries will get a backbone.

Monisha: 00:34:26

You know, and do the same thing.

Monisha: 00:34:29

I hope that more countries will, will stop being so scared of the United States and

Monisha: 00:34:35

scared of Israel and actually do the right thing instead of also, like, maintaining

Monisha: 00:34:41

their complicity by preserving their own self interest and their greed and whatnot.

Monisha: 00:34:46

But that's what I hope for.

Monisha: 00:34:47

Free Palestine, free Puerto Rico, free Turtle Island, free

Monisha: 00:34:50

everywhere, US out of everywhere.

Jovanni: 00:34:53

Awesome.

Jovanni: 00:34:53

Thank you, Monisha.

Jovanni: 00:34:54

Monisha, I got a couple questions to ask you.

Jovanni: 00:34:56

So, the The, um, the plebiscite that you were talking about, that's the

Jovanni: 00:35:01

same plebiscite that, uh, AOC and, um, Lidia, Torres, well, that's the one

Jovanni: 00:35:07

that they're promoting here in Congress.

Monisha: 00:35:10

Yeah, and what's interesting is, so there was an older one that

Monisha: 00:35:13

they did, and both their names were on it, but the, on this one,

Monisha: 00:35:17

I think because it's now in the

Jovanni: 00:35:18

Lidia Velasquez, that's her name, right?

Monisha: 00:35:21

Lidia Velasquez, but I don't think AOC's name is on this.

Monisha: 00:35:24

The Senate version of it, because she's a representative, right?

Monisha: 00:35:27

Not a senator.

Monisha: 00:35:29

So, yeah, I don't know if, if her name can be on it, but yeah, it's the same one.

Jovanni: 00:35:34

Awesome.

Jovanni: 00:35:34

Also, I want to ask you about, when you mentioned, Duresco, something

Jovanni: 00:35:38

came to mind, also, that early this year, Uh, there was circling, uh, of

Jovanni: 00:35:44

Ukrainian troops being trained at, at the, uh, at the old Roosevelt Road,

Jovanni: 00:35:50

uh, base, whatever came out of that.

Jovanni: 00:35:54

So

Monisha: 00:35:54

I haven't seen anything else.

Monisha: 00:35:55

I live directly near there, so I hear all of the air traffic,

Monisha: 00:36:00

um, that goes in and out.

Monisha: 00:36:02

I can see training exercises happening from time to time, but it

Monisha: 00:36:06

doesn't seem like there's been any change to their frequency or type.

Monisha: 00:36:11

Then what I've been used to, like, hearing and seeing, so I'm not sure, I don't know.

Monisha: 00:36:18

Um, it did raise quite a stink among Vieques obviously, um, for folks who

Monisha: 00:36:23

are listening, Vieques are people from the island of Vieques that the U.

Monisha: 00:36:26

S.

Monisha: 00:36:27

um, militarized and used as a, a practice range for all but real war

Monisha: 00:36:32

exercises for 60 something years and we're still struggling with.

Monisha: 00:36:37

The UXO and all of the stuff and so it did get discussed on social media.

Monisha: 00:36:45

I'm not sure if anybody did press releases on that or nothing else came out.

Monisha: 00:36:51

About it to lead to more action on the part of the community.

Monisha: 00:36:56

So it was just kind of hearsay.

Monisha: 00:36:59

Anyway, sources told that the,

Jovanni: 00:37:03

so I got, I got it from a news article from one from clarity.

Jovanni: 00:37:06

That right?

Jovanni: 00:37:06

Yeah.

Jovanni: 00:37:07

No, what's the clarity that it was either clarity that or

Jovanni: 00:37:09

the, I think it was clarity.

Jovanni: 00:37:11

Yes.

Jovanni: 00:37:11

Yeah.

Jovanni: 00:37:12

That one or the one that's, uh, the Metro was a Metro.

Jovanni: 00:37:14

The one that's in San Juan.

Monisha: 00:37:16

Yeah.

Monisha: 00:37:17

I didn't see that one.

Monisha: 00:37:18

I'd only seen the one from clarity that.

Monisha: 00:37:21

And in it, they, they say that a source, sources say, you know, but

Monisha: 00:37:24

there was nothing else to confirm it and not that I doubt them at all.

Monisha: 00:37:28

It's just that.

Monisha: 00:37:30

There was, it was rumored, the sources were saying this could

Monisha: 00:37:34

happen, not necessarily that it was going to happen, but that it

Monisha: 00:37:37

has, it was being talked about.

Monisha: 00:37:39

So, yeah, our ears are still to the ground here, keeping an eye on what happens with

Monisha: 00:37:45

that, and if there's anything that we see, we're definitely going to raise hell.

Jovanni: 00:37:50

Also, one last thing you mentioned about the, uh, um, the zona

Jovanni: 00:37:53

piece, I believe that was initiated by By either Chavez, he was Chavez

Jovanni: 00:37:59

when he was in power, uh, about the, uh, Declaration of Zone of Peace.

Jovanni: 00:38:03

I think one of the initiatives that they were trying to do at the time was to end

Jovanni: 00:38:07

the last active conflict in, in South America, which was the conflict of, uh,

Jovanni: 00:38:12

the Colombian government against the, uh, Colombian guerrillas, uh, where,

Jovanni: 00:38:18

where Chavez was, was acting as a, uh, mediator between the government and.

Jovanni: 00:38:24

The farc and now Cuba is acting as a mediator between the Columbia government

Jovanni: 00:38:30

and the, and the, uh, ELN, um, which is also another gorilla, uh, in the

Jovanni: 00:38:36

mil militia in in, in, uh, in Columbia.

Jovanni: 00:38:40

What's funny about it is that both countries, because of.

Jovanni: 00:38:43

Their, their involvement in trying and trying to bring those conflicts,

Jovanni: 00:38:46

I mean, the conflict between the Colombian government and the FARC

Jovanni: 00:38:49

is like the oldest active guerrilla conflict in the Western Hemisphere.

Jovanni: 00:38:53

I mean, it's been going on since, at least since the 50s, I believe.

Jovanni: 00:38:57

And, uh, uh, it came to a close, um, a few years ago, uh, but the, the ELN,

Jovanni: 00:39:04

it's still active and, uh, and, and, uh, right now Cuba is acting as a mediator.

Jovanni: 00:39:10

They're meeting in Havana.

Jovanni: 00:39:12

But what's funny is because of those two countries acting to try to bring closure

Jovanni: 00:39:17

to those, to those long conflicts, right?

Jovanni: 00:39:19

Both countries was designated as, uh, state sponsors of Tists because of

Jovanni: 00:39:22

that . Um, and, and, uh, uh, and Cuba was, was, was added to the list of state

Jovanni: 00:39:29

sponsors of terrorism, um, uh, a country because of their involvement with the,

Jovanni: 00:39:33

with the ELN and their involvement with the, uh, mediating between them

Jovanni: 00:39:37

and the, and the Columbia government.

Monisha: 00:39:40

I was not aware of, of that specific connection.

Monisha: 00:39:43

Thanks for, for telling me that.

Jovanni: 00:39:46

Yeah.

Jovanni: 00:39:46

Thank you.

Jovanni: 00:39:47

Thank you.

Jovanni: 00:39:47

Yeah.

Jovanni: 00:39:47

Thank you.

Jovanni: 00:39:48

Very, um, very valuable.

Jovanni: 00:39:50

Um, a lot of, a lot of input that you put there.

Jovanni: 00:39:54

Thank you.

Jovanni: 00:39:55

Um, guess who's next?

Jovanni: 00:39:58

Guess that's me, right?

Jovanni: 00:39:59

Um, so yeah.

Monisha: 00:40:00

What's on your mind, Jovanni?

Monisha: 00:40:01

Tell us everything.

Monisha: 00:40:02

So,

Jovanni: 00:40:03

uh, I've been, I've been, uh, taking notes on my phone all week,

Jovanni: 00:40:08

actually dodging things here and there, and then and I just put them together.

Jovanni: 00:40:11

I put like three at the top, three or four things together, right?

Jovanni: 00:40:16

Um, and obviously a lot of things that happened in 2023, um, a lot

Jovanni: 00:40:20

of movement, like, like, uh, Shiloh mentioned earlier, like, I mean, there

Jovanni: 00:40:24

was huge tectonic shifts going on.

Jovanni: 00:40:28

Um, I think Lennon was the one who coined that there were decades.

Jovanni: 00:40:32

That nothing happens and there's days that decades happens

Jovanni: 00:40:35

and that's what's happening.

Jovanni: 00:40:38

Um, you know, a lot of things moving, a lot of moving parts, a lot of

Jovanni: 00:40:41

things happening, you know, around the world, just so hard to keep up.

Jovanni: 00:40:44

Um, so one of the things that, that inspired me in 2023.

Jovanni: 00:40:49

Was the revolt in the Shahe, um, against France.

Jovanni: 00:40:54

Uh, that's Shahe is the area of Central Africa.

Jovanni: 00:40:57

Uh, so most of those countries in the Shahe, uh, were part of, you know,

Jovanni: 00:41:02

uh, French colonialism, you know, uh, they were colonized by France for

Jovanni: 00:41:06

like, uh, um, over a hundred years.

Jovanni: 00:41:09

Uh, but there were successive cos going on since, um, 20, 21, 2 and three.

Jovanni: 00:41:15

There were several cos um, where the.

Jovanni: 00:41:20

The president of the government that are, you know, francophone or francophile,

Jovanni: 00:41:25

francophile governments were overthrown by nationalist governments, right?

Jovanni: 00:41:30

By revolutionary nationalist governments.

Jovanni: 00:41:32

Um, or, not all, you know, they didn't necessarily have to be a revolutionary

Jovanni: 00:41:38

nationalist government, but they were, some of them were overthrown by

Jovanni: 00:41:41

governments that pretty much wanted to distance themselves from France, right?

Jovanni: 00:41:45

Um, so, the countries That pretty much enacted coups or broke relations with

Jovanni: 00:41:54

France were pretty much Chad, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Gabon.

Jovanni: 00:42:02

In 2023, it was Niger that overthrew the government on a coup.

Jovanni: 00:42:08

Um, and pretty much broke relations with France and told, uh, France to,

Jovanni: 00:42:12

uh, go home and send all their troops.

Jovanni: 00:42:14

Like, keep in mind that France has bases in all these countries, you

Jovanni: 00:42:18

know, these other countries, right?

Jovanni: 00:42:19

And France pretty much, uh, controlled these countries economy.

Jovanni: 00:42:24

Um, and one of the things that, that, uh, and a lot of these countries are

Jovanni: 00:42:29

very rich, very rich in minerals, very rich in material and raw material, very

Jovanni: 00:42:34

rich in, in, uh, in, uh, commodities and everything, but the people see

Jovanni: 00:42:39

very little of, of the wealth that's being extracted from those countries.

Jovanni: 00:42:44

Most of this wealth goes to France, right?

Jovanni: 00:42:47

Or other European countries.

Jovanni: 00:42:49

Um, so that right there.

Jovanni: 00:42:51

You know, cause revolts and people's revolts.

Jovanni: 00:42:53

And, uh, and there's one character, there's one person, um, which was

Jovanni: 00:42:59

very inspiring for a lot of people.

Jovanni: 00:43:00

What's, um, his name is Captain Ibrahim Troy Ray, uh, he's

Jovanni: 00:43:06

from Burkina Faso, right?

Jovanni: 00:43:08

And he, I believe he's like, he was an army captain, I think like 32

Jovanni: 00:43:11

years old, but he became like an incarnation of, uh, Thomas Sankara.

Jovanni: 00:43:16

Uh, Thomas Sankara was a revolutionary, uh, uh, leader of that country.

Jovanni: 00:43:21

Uh, Burkina Faso, um, also led a revolt.

Jovanni: 00:43:26

Uh, against colonialism and neocolonialism and, was setting the,

Jovanni: 00:43:30

uh, the country in the path towards, uh, liberation and self sufficiency

Jovanni: 00:43:34

until he was killed in, in, in 87.

Jovanni: 00:43:36

So, this person became in the minds and the imaginations of, of his

Jovanni: 00:43:42

people, you know, the reincarnation of, of Thomas Shankara and, and, uh,

Jovanni: 00:43:46

he was very, uh, became very popular.

Jovanni: 00:43:49

So, yeah, so nevertheless, um, France, the U.

Jovanni: 00:43:52

S.

Jovanni: 00:43:53

and others, Britain, they tried to reverse.

Jovanni: 00:43:56

Um, what was happening in, in the Chahal, and there's this, uh, economic

Jovanni: 00:44:02

community of West Africa, ECOWAS it's called, and these, uh, these,

Jovanni: 00:44:07

uh, this community of West Africa pretty much is a Western shill.

Jovanni: 00:44:11

It's like, uh, it's like the OAE, like the, uh, like, like the OAF

Jovanni: 00:44:16

here in the United States, kind of, and not United States, but in the

Jovanni: 00:44:19

US, in, in the Western Hemisphere.

Jovanni: 00:44:22

Uh, but this is, this is mostly focused on economic issues.

Jovanni: 00:44:27

Uh, but also in political issues in the Central and the West African countries.

Jovanni: 00:44:31

But anyway, they were threatening a, uh, a An invasion, to muster up

Jovanni: 00:44:36

an invasion to, uh, against Niger in post, uh, sanctions on Niger.

Jovanni: 00:44:41

They gave Niger a deadline that if they don't reconstitute the, the president

Jovanni: 00:44:46

that was overthrown by this date, that they were going to intervene militarily.

Jovanni: 00:44:50

Uh, France was supporting, US was supporting and everything.

Jovanni: 00:44:54

And, but they weren't able to do that because the other countries

Jovanni: 00:44:56

that I mentioned before, you know, Chad, Guinea, Mali, uh, threatened.

Jovanni: 00:45:02

Was that if they, if they uh, uh, get themselves involved militarily into

Jovanni: 00:45:06

Nigeria, they will come into the red, they would come to support Nigeria,

Jovanni: 00:45:10

and then there will pretty much be a declaration war against them as well.

Jovanni: 00:45:13

So it was kind of like a, went for all and all for one type of thing, you

Jovanni: 00:45:17

know, so Kowa kind of backed the away.

Jovanni: 00:45:19

But yeah, so that was, that was, um, that was inspiring.

Jovanni: 00:45:22

That was inspiring, uh, seeing that, uh, um, these countries, you know,

Jovanni: 00:45:27

stood up, uh, to Western, uh, economic power and military power, you know, they

Jovanni: 00:45:32

consolidated amongst themselves, and, and, and they, uh, um, support each other, and,

Jovanni: 00:45:39

you know, they, and these powers couldn't do anything about it, and they're,

Jovanni: 00:45:44

you know, they're right now tracking.

Jovanni: 00:45:45

Um, another thing that, that also, um, That I'm tracking, it also inspired me,

Jovanni: 00:45:51

was the BRICS Summit in South Africa.

Jovanni: 00:45:54

This was the 15th BRICS Summit.

Jovanni: 00:45:57

If all of you don't know what BRICS stands for, it means it's an economic

Jovanni: 00:46:03

relationship between Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

Jovanni: 00:46:10

Hence the acronym BRICS.

Jovanni: 00:46:13

Um, it's funny because the name, they didn't give themselves that name, the

Jovanni: 00:46:18

name that the, uh, was one of those, uh, stock firms that gave them that

Jovanni: 00:46:23

name, um, early, um, about 15 years ago, um, I forgot which stock firm, it

Jovanni: 00:46:29

was an American stock firm actually.

Jovanni: 00:46:30

Um, they gave them that name because the relationship, they

Jovanni: 00:46:34

were coming together, right?

Jovanni: 00:46:35

And pretty much the founders of this economic relationship was, you

Jovanni: 00:46:40

know, Brazil, Russia, and China, then India got involved, and then

Jovanni: 00:46:45

South Africa was the last one.

Jovanni: 00:46:47

But in this summit that happened in August 2023, uh, they

Jovanni: 00:46:50

announced, uh, six new members.

Jovanni: 00:46:53

Uh, to add the BRICS.

Jovanni: 00:46:54

So now it's called BRICS Plus, right?

Jovanni: 00:46:55

And the six new members is Egypt, Iran, uh, Saudi Arabia,

Jovanni: 00:46:59

Argentina, Ethiopia, and the UAE.

Jovanni: 00:47:02

Uh, most of them, most of the country, Egypt, uh, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the

Jovanni: 00:47:08

UAE, and Ethiopia, uh, are countries that are heavy on, on, on, on petroleum, right?

Jovanni: 00:47:15

So, that right there, pretty much.

Jovanni: 00:47:18

Having that is having, having consolidated that power, that petroleum power, uh,

Jovanni: 00:47:26

within this organization, pretty much, uh, make, make the bricks, uh, economically,

Jovanni: 00:47:33

um, higher than the G seven who also know who the G seven, you know, pretty much the

Jovanni: 00:47:38

great seven countries, you know, the, um, the, the seven wealthiest countries in the

Jovanni: 00:47:43

world, uh, uk, us, um, France, Germany.

Jovanni: 00:47:49

Uh, Japan, um, and two others, uh, make the BRICS, make the G7s, but the BRICS

Jovanni: 00:47:55

will path them in economic activities now, um, those countries, which, you

Jovanni: 00:48:01

know, I thought that was inspiring that, you know, that it's, it's an organization

Jovanni: 00:48:06

that is not centered in the West.

Jovanni: 00:48:08

But it's central elsewhere in the rest, uh, and that they have this

Jovanni: 00:48:12

cooperation with each other, and it was kind of inspiring, and then also

Jovanni: 00:48:16

opening up to other global majority countries to come in and whatnot, and,

Jovanni: 00:48:21

uh, have this, this, uh, this economic, uh, cooperation with each other.

Jovanni: 00:48:26

Uh, so yeah, so the six countries will become officially members

Jovanni: 00:48:29

in January, in January 2024.

Jovanni: 00:48:32

However, with the election of, uh, Uh, uh, Javier, uh, uh, Mila, Javier,

Jovanni: 00:48:40

what's his last name, Javier, uh, Mila, Mila, in, in Argentina, which is, he's

Jovanni: 00:48:47

pretty much a, you know, very extreme libertarian, pretty much in with, with,

Jovanni: 00:48:52

uh, with the IMF, uh, he want dollar right the economy, uh, he wants to

Jovanni: 00:48:58

enact, uh, austerity back in Argentina.

Jovanni: 00:49:01

He wants to break.

Jovanni: 00:49:03

He wants to break relations with Brazil, China, and Russia, uh, et cetera, and

Jovanni: 00:49:08

then he, and during his election campaign, he pretty much pledged allegiance to

Jovanni: 00:49:13

the United States and Israel, so he pretty much formally submitted the,

Jovanni: 00:49:17

uh, the letter to Lula in Brazil saying that Argentina will be withdrawn from

Jovanni: 00:49:22

the BRICS, so, so now instead of six countries, now it's five countries.

Jovanni: 00:49:27

Um, so, But yeah, so that was inspiring for me, uh, um, you know, the, you know,

Jovanni: 00:49:32

the new trade routes that's happening, you know, and then the, the linking, the

Jovanni: 00:49:36

linking between the, the BRICS, China's, uh, uh, uh, BRI, which is the Belt and

Jovanni: 00:49:42

Road Initiative, and the Central Asian Economic Union, which is made up of, uh,

Jovanni: 00:49:48

former Soviet, uh, countries in Central Asia, you know, the economic, these

Jovanni: 00:49:52

economic coalitions with each other, right, and, Um, that, you know, that's

Jovanni: 00:49:57

kind of inspiring as well, because, you know, now you're seeing the, you're

Jovanni: 00:50:01

seeing the, the world, the globe, kind of moving away from, from what was called

Jovanni: 00:50:08

the core, the core being central, you know, North Atlantic, you know, Canada,

Jovanni: 00:50:13

United States, and Western Europe, moving away from the core, from the center, you

Jovanni: 00:50:17

know, and pretty much doing business with each other, and pretty much by doing so,

Jovanni: 00:50:21

affirming their sovereignty, affirming their own development without being

Jovanni: 00:50:24

managed from, from the, uh, the West.

Jovanni: 00:50:27

Which I thought that was, I think that is very, um, you know, inspiring,

Jovanni: 00:50:33

um, also the de dollarization that's happening as well, which means that,

Jovanni: 00:50:37

uh, currently the countries when they do business with each other, they

Jovanni: 00:50:40

have to do business with what they do commerce with each other with dollars.

Jovanni: 00:50:44

So a lot of countries have to, um, manage to have dollar reserves and

Jovanni: 00:50:48

then that's how they, they purchase.

Jovanni: 00:50:50

Goods in the global market with dollars, uh, but the only country that

Jovanni: 00:50:54

print dollars is the United States.

Jovanni: 00:50:56

No other countries do that, right?

Jovanni: 00:50:57

So they have to, they have to sell the commodities in dollars, they have to

Jovanni: 00:50:59

buy the goods in dollars and everything.

Jovanni: 00:51:01

So now, um, with all this economic activity that's going on with all these

Jovanni: 00:51:07

countries, right, now these, um, and all these economic allegiances and all

Jovanni: 00:51:11

these economic interrelations that's happening, now countries are starting to

Jovanni: 00:51:14

bypass the dollar and having You know, bilateral relations, um, buying with

Jovanni: 00:51:21

their own currencies or other currencies, et cetera, right, which is a good thing.

Jovanni: 00:51:27

Um, one of the things that was funny, Marco Rubio, Senator in, in, in, in

Jovanni: 00:51:32

February, in, in Florida, he complained about the de dollarization that's

Jovanni: 00:51:36

happening because his word is it's going to be harder to sanction countries.

Jovanni: 00:51:40

So if countries.

Jovanni: 00:51:42

Those are not used dollars, it'd be harder to sanction them.

Jovanni: 00:51:44

Right now, the reason sanctions are so effective on countries is because

Jovanni: 00:51:48

countries need to use dollars to get goods, and then by denying them dollars

Jovanni: 00:51:52

by, you know, it kind of makes them hard to buy things in the market, right?

Jovanni: 00:51:56

So if countries are doing business with each other not using the dollars, right,

Jovanni: 00:52:00

so it's kind of harder, in Marco Rubio's words, it's harder to sanction them.

Jovanni: 00:52:06

Uh, third thing that, uh, that caught my attention and that I'm following

Jovanni: 00:52:10

is the, the failure of the Ukraine counteroffensive, which was, um, which was

Jovanni: 00:52:15

propped up to be this big thing that was supposed to happen in the spring of 2023,

Jovanni: 00:52:19

and then got pushed back to the summer.

Jovanni: 00:52:22

Um, this was supposed to break the back of the Russian army, um, the Ukrainian

Jovanni: 00:52:27

was supposed to, um, reach, um, uh, the coast by the end of the summer,

Jovanni: 00:52:33

they were supposed to be in Crimea, you know, having beach parties and

Jovanni: 00:52:36

everything, because they did a whole theatrical, uh, commercial on it, you

Jovanni: 00:52:40

know, all this, you know, promotion, how successful this was going to be.

Jovanni: 00:52:45

Uh, they weren't able to, they hit a pretty much a Russian wall and.

Jovanni: 00:52:49

The West was just throwing, uh, armament after armament and, you know, the, the

Jovanni: 00:52:55

Western countries were kind of depleting their, their, their shells and the

Jovanni: 00:52:58

armaments and, and all the weaponry that was sent into Ukraine and it was

Jovanni: 00:53:02

just being, you know, Destroy one after the other, um, you see countries like

Jovanni: 00:53:07

Germany, for example, they, you know, they use all their last reserves, you

Jovanni: 00:53:11

see, um, complain about, you know, they're using all their reserves and

Jovanni: 00:53:15

everything to send to Ukraine and nothing was happening, there weren't any goods.

Jovanni: 00:53:18

So now what's happening now that, that, uh, Ukraine kind of, if you don't

Jovanni: 00:53:23

notice, kind of left the, uh, the, the, the main, um, People aren't talking

Jovanni: 00:53:28

about Ukraine no more, it's now kind of hard talking about it, now the, the

Jovanni: 00:53:31

Ukrainian president Zelensky is just pretty much going around the world, you

Jovanni: 00:53:35

know, kind of begging for more money, because You know, it has been a failure.

Jovanni: 00:53:39

I mean, there, this, this country was pretty much pushed into this war.

Jovanni: 00:53:44

I mean, this year as well was the 10th anniversary of the war in

Jovanni: 00:53:48

Ukraine, which is, it happened 10 years ago with the coup in 2014.

Jovanni: 00:53:53

And when they started attacking the, uh, the Russian speaking populations

Jovanni: 00:53:57

within Ukraine, it was, And Eastern, Eastern Ukraine, um, et cetera, right?

Jovanni: 00:54:02

And then with the intervention of Russia, uh, uh, little, almost two years ago now,

Jovanni: 00:54:07

uh, it kind of escalated, intensified after that, um, but yeah, and, uh,

Jovanni: 00:54:13

pretty much to a push by, by, you know, by NATO and the, and Western, you know,

Jovanni: 00:54:16

European countries to, to pretty much, um, commit suicide, pretty much, that's what

Jovanni: 00:54:22

happened, you know, because they're, you know, self afflicted, and, Um, injuries.

Jovanni: 00:54:26

Um, they lost a huge amount of the population.

Jovanni: 00:54:29

They got millions of people that, that, that went, that went to Russia.

Jovanni: 00:54:34

Millions of people that went to Western Europe.

Jovanni: 00:54:37

Hundreds of thousands of people killed in the battlefield.

Jovanni: 00:54:39

You know, so, so this country pretty much is broken into pieces

Jovanni: 00:54:42

because They were used as cannon fodder to, to hurt, to hurt Russia.

Jovanni: 00:54:48

In the words of, of Hillary Clinton, you know, they were trying

Jovanni: 00:54:50

to get the Afghan trap on Russia using Ukraine, um, and it failed.

Jovanni: 00:54:55

Um, yeah, and lastly, uh, things that, uh, that I'm tracking, you know, um,

Jovanni: 00:55:02

is what's happening in Palestine.

Jovanni: 00:55:04

Obviously, that has impacted.

Jovanni: 00:55:07

I mean, in fact, a whole lot of people like Shiloh said earlier,

Jovanni: 00:55:10

it's, you know, it's happening broadly in life, people are anybody with a

Jovanni: 00:55:16

smartphone can see what's happening.

Jovanni: 00:55:18

And we're footing the bill, uh, this thing can end tomorrow if, if the U.

Jovanni: 00:55:22

S.

Jovanni: 00:55:22

just stop, um, uh, enabling it and sending billions of dollars to, to Israel.

Jovanni: 00:55:30

Um, just this week, I believe they pushed another packet.

Jovanni: 00:55:34

Of a hundred billion dollars, uh, worth of am ammunitions and armament to Israel.

Jovanni: 00:55:40

Um, here in the United States Congress, um, I think they

Jovanni: 00:55:42

bypass Congress, actually.

Jovanni: 00:55:44

They bypass Congress and they just send it to them.

Jovanni: 00:55:46

And that's on top of the $4 billion that, that the United

Jovanni: 00:55:49

States sends to Israel a year.

Jovanni: 00:55:51

To sustain them, et cetera.

Jovanni: 00:55:53

Um, and every time other countries, every time they, they convene a session at the

Jovanni: 00:55:59

UN to try to, to, uh, uh, sanction Israel, try to do some type of, uh, resolution

Jovanni: 00:56:06

against Israel, the US and about three other countries, um, small countries like

Jovanni: 00:56:10

micro Micronesia and Palau, for example, and Israel, um, veto it or us veto it.

Jovanni: 00:56:18

We won't let it happen.

Jovanni: 00:56:19

We'll let it pass it.

Jovanni: 00:56:20

Um, Egypt, which is a neighboring country right, you know, right on the border

Jovanni: 00:56:25

with With, uh, Gaza has to ask, has to ask permission, uh, to Israel and the U.

Jovanni: 00:56:32

S.

Jovanni: 00:56:32

before sending an aid to Gaza, you know, which is, it's just huge

Jovanni: 00:56:36

humiliation to, to the, you know, to, to the Arab, Arab nations.

Jovanni: 00:56:40

Egypt is the most populous country in the Arab world, has the largest military

Jovanni: 00:56:45

in the Arab world, uh, yet they have to ask permission to send, um, Uh, aid into,

Jovanni: 00:56:50

into Gaza, which is very troubling, very humiliating to, uh, to you, to Arab people

Jovanni: 00:56:56

whose sentiments is on the right place.

Jovanni: 00:56:58

The, the, the issue in Palestine is in the hearts of every Arab person,

Jovanni: 00:57:03

uh, yet these, uh, these heads of states, they're totally captured,

Jovanni: 00:57:08

uh, by, by the West, by the U.

Jovanni: 00:57:11

S., by Israel.

Jovanni: 00:57:13

And they, uh, seem to be, uh, unable, unwilling to do anything, you know.

Jovanni: 00:57:18

And let's give him permission to do so.

Jovanni: 00:57:23

So yeah, those are the four things that I've been tracking, four things

Jovanni: 00:57:27

that I'm looking into and following.

Jovanni: 00:57:31

Things I'm looking forward to is the end of the Ukraine war.

Jovanni: 00:57:35

Which is, which is also going to be a, which also is already,

Jovanni: 00:57:40

the war is lost already.

Jovanni: 00:57:42

Um, you know, people in Congress, people in the West are pretty

Jovanni: 00:57:46

much turning away from Ukraine.

Jovanni: 00:57:47

Um, it's already a lot to cause.

Jovanni: 00:57:50

You know, NATO has been defeated again.

Jovanni: 00:57:52

You know, they got defeated in 2021 in Afghanistan.

Jovanni: 00:57:55

They're being defeated again in Ukraine.

Jovanni: 00:57:57

Um, but yeah, you know, I'm looking forward to this, the end of this carnage

Jovanni: 00:58:01

that's happening in, in Ukraine that has cost a lot of hundreds of thousands

Jovanni: 00:58:06

of lives, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian, hundreds of thousands of, of

Jovanni: 00:58:11

Russian lives, um, and others, you know, to come to an end, to come to a close.

Jovanni: 00:58:15

A second thing I'm looking forward to is the end.

Jovanni: 00:58:18

of the Zionist Apartheid State of Israel.

Jovanni: 00:58:22

Um, if you notice that recently in Congress they passed a resolution Equating

Jovanni: 00:58:30

Zionism to anti Semitism, and I think every congressperson, it was a bipartisan

Jovanni: 00:58:35

thing, every congressperson voted for it, but one Republican Congress voted against

Jovanni: 00:58:42

it, and Rashida Tlaib, she voted present, you know, but everybody else voted, voted

Jovanni: 00:58:48

for it, which is wrong, which is wrong.

Jovanni: 00:58:51

Zionism is not, um, equivalent to anti Semitism.

Jovanni: 00:58:55

Zionism is, is an ideology that was created In Europe, um, is,

Jovanni: 00:59:02

uh, Jewish supremacy, um, you know, Jewish nationalism, uh,

Jovanni: 00:59:07

which is racialized, racialized, uh, Judaism, which is a religion.

Jovanni: 00:59:12

Um, so that's what Zionists is, and then, and, and the State of Israel is

Jovanni: 00:59:18

a Zionist, enacting a Zionist policy.

Jovanni: 00:59:22

Uh, I mean, apartheid policy, but it's not the same as anti Semitism, uh, anti

Jovanni: 00:59:27

Semitism being, uh, tied to language, uh, tied to a people of a region, which

Jovanni: 00:59:33

is people of the Middle East, people in what we call West Asia, uh, you know,

Jovanni: 00:59:38

are Semitic people, including Arabs are Semitic people, including Palestinians

Jovanni: 00:59:41

are Semitic people, um, so yeah.

Jovanni: 00:59:45

So that, uh, I'm looking forward to the end of this.

Jovanni: 00:59:50

This, uh, this state that was created by the U.

Jovanni: 00:59:52

N.

Jovanni: 00:59:53

was first created by Britain, by the U.

Jovanni: 00:59:55

K., um, it was started off by U.

Jovanni: 00:59:58

K., but was actually created by the U.

Jovanni: 00:59:59

N., um, in 1948, um, and, uh, without the input of the people that

Jovanni: 01:00:07

were already living there, which was the Palestinians, and that's,

Jovanni: 01:00:09

that's the origin of this conflict.

Jovanni: 01:00:11

Um, it's not religion, it's, it's not hatred towards Jews.

Jovanni: 01:00:15

Is, is, uh, is the, uh, um, the ethnic cleansing, is the displacement, is the,

Jovanni: 01:00:21

uh, people by immigrants from Europe.

Jovanni: 01:00:25

Claiming that the lands is theirs.

Jovanni: 01:00:27

Um, so yeah, I mean if you look at back at South Africa, for example, apart,

Jovanni: 01:00:33

thi South Africa doesn't exist anymore.

Jovanni: 01:00:35

People, you study South Africa, the country exists, but apartide

Jovanni: 01:00:40

South Africa doesn't exist anymore.

Jovanni: 01:00:42

It's in the history books.

Jovanni: 01:00:44

Um, yeah.

Jovanni: 01:00:45

And that's what I'm looking forward to, um, next year, that the apartide zionist

Jovanni: 01:00:51

state of Israel is in the history book.

Jovanni: 01:00:53

And then we have, we look forward to a more inclusive, more peaceful,

Jovanni: 01:00:58

um, you know, state in that area.

Jovanni: 01:01:01

Um, and then further, lastly, I'm looking forward to the furthering

Jovanni: 01:01:05

of the multi polar world.

Jovanni: 01:01:07

Uh, which is, which is forming as we speak, um, just like Shiloh mentioned

Jovanni: 01:01:12

earlier, the shift that's happening is, is moving towards a world where

Jovanni: 01:01:16

the West is not centered, but there are, there are multiple centers around

Jovanni: 01:01:20

the world, um, you know, what I would like to see instead of a multipolar

Jovanni: 01:01:26

is a pluripolar world, pluripolar world, which was, uh, coined by, by

Jovanni: 01:01:32

Chavez and, uh, and, uh, Evo Morales.

Jovanni: 01:01:36

Uh, which means a world that with no centers of power, you know, a world where,

Jovanni: 01:01:40

you know, where states are, are more in cooperative mode than in competitive mode.

Jovanni: 01:01:47

And that is my, and that's my story and that's what I'm sticking with.

Jovanni: 01:01:51

Go ahead.

Monisha: 01:01:52

May

Shiloh: 01:01:53

it be so.

Shiloh: 01:01:54

May it be so.

Shiloh: 01:01:55

Burn it all down, it sounds like.

Shiloh: 01:01:57

You're just done with all of, all of it.

Shiloh: 01:02:01

I'm, the thing that's, that's, uh, listening to both you and Monisha, the

Shiloh: 01:02:07

thing that keeps just, just echoing in my head is, you know, with all this,

Shiloh: 01:02:11

um, Monisha talking about the, all the systems and structures that are

Shiloh: 01:02:16

collapsing in Puerto Rico and just, yeah, all the war and violence, um,

Shiloh: 01:02:24

happening at the, At the behest of the U.

Shiloh: 01:02:27

S.

Shiloh: 01:02:28

and different empires, like, what, what is giving you hope?

Shiloh: 01:02:33

What is, what is you keep, what's keeping you in the fight and not like Monisha

Shiloh: 01:02:38

said, putting your head in the sand?

Shiloh: 01:02:40

What's, uh, yeah, what gives you hope, um, for 2024?

Jovanni: 01:02:46

I mean, we have, well, just like you guys mentioned earlier, I

Jovanni: 01:02:48

mean, we have to have revolutionary hope, just like you mentioned earlier,

Jovanni: 01:02:51

not having hope is not an option.

Jovanni: 01:02:52

We need revolutionary hope.

Jovanni: 01:02:56

We need to be aware of what's happening and take part in whatever

Jovanni: 01:03:00

our capacity is to take part in.

Jovanni: 01:03:03

Here in San Antonio, for example, we've been doing our part with

Jovanni: 01:03:09

the Palestinian, you know, ethnic cleansing that's happening now.

Jovanni: 01:03:16

Go into the community has been mobilized here.

Jovanni: 01:03:19

We've been going to here in San Antonio.

Jovanni: 01:03:21

We have City Hall.

Jovanni: 01:03:22

It's something that's called a citizen to to be heard, which is on Wednesday,

Jovanni: 01:03:29

which is, you know, anyone can go to the City Hall and present their.

Jovanni: 01:03:35

Present their, uh, you know, comments or present problems, you know, and the

Jovanni: 01:03:39

mayor is there and then the, the city council persons are there as well and

Jovanni: 01:03:44

everything, and then you get like three minutes, um, to, to uninterrupted,

Jovanni: 01:03:49

three uninterrupted minutes, um, to present your case, present, you know,

Jovanni: 01:03:53

your, you know, what you have to say.

Jovanni: 01:03:55

Um, so ever since this conflict has started, we've been, the community

Jovanni: 01:04:00

here in San Antonio, we've been going every Wednesday, every Wednesday, uh,

Jovanni: 01:04:05

we've been going down to, uh, to City Hall and pretty much people after

Jovanni: 01:04:09

people, people after people, right, giving their testimonies on, you know,

Jovanni: 01:04:13

on, on what's happening in Israel.

Jovanni: 01:04:16

I know that we're a city and you say that, well, you know, your city,

Jovanni: 01:04:18

that's something with foreign policy.

Jovanni: 01:04:20

That city doesn't have nothing to do with it.

Jovanni: 01:04:21

But San Antonio is a, is.

Jovanni: 01:04:24

It's part of this program called, um, uh, City, uh, Friendship Cities.

Jovanni: 01:04:30

So we have several, several Friendship Cities, and then they have, um, and

Jovanni: 01:04:35

this program of Friendship Cities.

Jovanni: 01:04:36

One of the, one of the cities that we're friends with is Tel Aviv.

Jovanni: 01:04:39

We're demanding that our, that our city, drops, you know, Tel Aviv as,

Jovanni: 01:04:45

as one of the Friendship Cities.

Jovanni: 01:04:47

You know, apparently, apparently the city of San Antonio had

Jovanni: 01:04:50

given Israel about 19 million.

Jovanni: 01:04:52

All right, 19 million dollars.

Jovanni: 01:04:55

Um, so yeah, so we're, we're demanding for our mayor to drop, um, to drop the, uh,

Jovanni: 01:05:03

Tel Aviv as a friendship city, which is interesting because he wrote the first,

Jovanni: 01:05:07

the first week that we started going, um, and like I said, we were filling the city

Jovanni: 01:05:12

halls, the media was there, and they were, you know, they were interviewing people

Jovanni: 01:05:15

on the spot and everything, and he put out a statement saying that he's not going

Jovanni: 01:05:18

to drop it because, um, It has nothing to do with foreign policy and, and, and, you

Jovanni: 01:05:25

know, friendship, you know, that's what, that's what the world needs is friendship,

Jovanni: 01:05:28

you know, just by, you know, just give us, give us like this little milquetoast,

Jovanni: 01:05:32

you know, uh, you know, uh, you know, statement, a little, yeah, you know,

Jovanni: 01:05:39

a little milquetoast statement there, right, saying that, you know, people need

Jovanni: 01:05:42

to talk and peace, you know, dialogue and blah, blah, we need cooperation,

Jovanni: 01:05:47

friendship is essential, right?

Jovanni: 01:05:49

However, uh, Houston, and you say it has nothing to do with, with foreign policy.

Jovanni: 01:05:55

But Houston, for example, is also a friendship city, uh, city,

Jovanni: 01:05:59

and they had a friendship city relationship with the Russian

Jovanni: 01:06:02

country, with the Russian, uh, city.

Jovanni: 01:06:05

And as soon as the Russian intervention started, right, they dropped

Jovanni: 01:06:08

that city like it was hot potato.

Jovanni: 01:06:10

They just dropped it.

Jovanni: 01:06:11

So, so they can't tell us that, that San Antonio can't do the same.

Jovanni: 01:06:16

You know, uh, they're choosing not to do it.

Jovanni: 01:06:18

That, that's the thing.

Jovanni: 01:06:20

Uh, apparently there's a, they're forcing.

Jovanni: 01:06:22

A, a vote here in San Antonio by, for next year, for the eighth or 9th of

Jovanni: 01:06:28

January, uh, people are, are asked to go to, to City Hall, uh, flood City

Jovanni: 01:06:34

Hall again, and, uh, pretty much push their concert, the cons members, you

Jovanni: 01:06:39

know, to this vote to drop, to drop, uh, Tel Aviv off the, uh, um, the

Jovanni: 01:06:44

friendship study list of, of San Antonio.

Jovanni: 01:06:47

So things like that, take part in whatever you can take part in.

Jovanni: 01:06:50

You know, I know that it could be overwhelming, you may feel powerless,

Jovanni: 01:06:54

you know, watching the news, you might feel, or other people just look the other

Jovanni: 01:06:58

way, just like nothing is happening, like, you know, we're in the holiday

Jovanni: 01:07:01

season, people out there shopping, like, nothing is happening, it doesn't concern

Jovanni: 01:07:04

them, it's not affecting them in any way, so yeah, we don't think about it,

Jovanni: 01:07:08

but yeah, but, you know, keep talking about it, uh, it's another thing that

Jovanni: 01:07:12

I, that I was seeing in social media, that, that the more people Flood social

Jovanni: 01:07:18

media with things about Palestine.

Jovanni: 01:07:19

The harder it is to shadowbind and the harder it is to, to, um, to,

Jovanni: 01:07:25

to close people's account or, you know, or, or, um, not close it.

Jovanni: 01:07:29

What they've been doing, they're suspending people.

Jovanni: 01:07:31

It's hard to suspend people because there's so many people, so many people

Jovanni: 01:07:34

putting a piece about Palestine, which is something that I think

Jovanni: 01:07:36

either you or, either you said it or Monisha said it that, um, that people,

Jovanni: 01:07:42

the veil is coming out, people are seeing it, which is something that

Jovanni: 01:07:45

we didn't see like 15 years ago.

Jovanni: 01:07:47

10 or 15 years ago, uh, the only, the only narrative that we'll get every time,

Jovanni: 01:07:53

every time Israel will get on the, on this killing spree, the only narrative that

Jovanni: 01:07:57

we'll get was the narrative from Israel, but now they don't control the narrative

Jovanni: 01:08:01

anymore, um, and people are pretty much pushing back with the, with the, with the

Jovanni: 01:08:05

counter narrative of what's happening.

Jovanni: 01:08:08

And, uh, yeah, yeah, so things like that give me revolutionary hope.

Jovanni: 01:08:12

Um,

Monisha: 01:08:14

before I say what, what gives me hope, I want to calm

Monisha: 01:08:17

myself out because I had intended to talk about the Congo as well.

Monisha: 01:08:24

Um, and I did not.

Monisha: 01:08:26

Um, I got lost in the sauce.

Monisha: 01:08:28

And I, I bring that up related to this because of How, um, the struggle for

Monisha: 01:08:38

the liberation of Palestine and the, the, the genocide that's happening

Monisha: 01:08:44

is part of what has brought light to what's happening in Congo, the

Monisha: 01:08:49

genocide there, and Israel and U.

Monisha: 01:08:51

S.

Monisha: 01:08:51

involvement there, um, as well as the huge, huge contradiction that it's

Monisha: 01:08:56

the very technology that we're using to expose the, the genocide against

Monisha: 01:09:02

Palestinians that is the result of the genocide against Congolese People.

Monisha: 01:09:07

I have a lot of feelings about that contradiction and I don't know what the

Monisha: 01:09:12

answer is to that, but I'm thankful that.

Monisha: 01:09:15

Now, at least, um, there's, it's being talked about more, um,

Monisha: 01:09:22

and we can become more aware.

Monisha: 01:09:24

And it makes me think about what does give me hope, um, is with mutual aid

Monisha: 01:09:32

initiatives, with food sovereignty movements, with the things that are doing

Monisha: 01:09:37

like what the Zone of Peace campaign talks about and like creating new structures.

Monisha: 01:09:42

Creating new systems for us to survive and thrive with and, and relate to

Monisha: 01:09:47

each other through so that we stop being unwitting and or unwilling

Monisha: 01:09:53

participants in these genocides, just by way of the nature of consumerism.

Monisha: 01:10:01

And I'm, I'm hopeful that the more Congo gets talked about.

Monisha: 01:10:06

Um, the more raw that contradiction becomes for people and we start to take

Monisha: 01:10:13

more responsibility in that way, you know.

Monisha: 01:10:17

I don't think we have an answer to that right now because we need our technology

Monisha: 01:10:22

to do the work that we're doing.

Monisha: 01:10:24

We need to be able to communicate with each other.

Monisha: 01:10:27

And now it's like every time I, I pick up my phone, which is constantly

Monisha: 01:10:31

now, I'm like constantly checking TikTok, Instagram, et cetera.

Monisha: 01:10:35

Um, I feel it.

Monisha: 01:10:38

I'm like thinking of the hands and the bodies, the eyes, the souls, the

Monisha: 01:10:45

spirits, the lives of the people in Congo that are the reason why this phone's

Monisha: 01:10:53

even in my hand to be to begin with.

Monisha: 01:10:56

Um, so, yeah, I guess in a weird way I'm trying to say that, um, the con the the

Monisha: 01:11:05

the the What's the word I'm looking for?

Monisha: 01:11:07

Jovanni.

Monisha: 01:11:07

You know it.

Monisha: 01:11:08

Like Exacerbation of the contradiction there of, of, you know, us being forced

Monisha: 01:11:16

to look at all of these things, um, is going to force us to change our way

Monisha: 01:11:23

of life and I see the people who are already working toward that and have been

Monisha: 01:11:27

working toward that for years through farming, through mutual aid work, um,

Monisha: 01:11:33

through, you know, trying to reduce our dependency on Globalization and on,

Monisha: 01:11:41

on these very systems that oppress us.

Monisha: 01:11:43

Um, so yeah, that's where my hope lies.

Monisha: 01:11:45

And that's why even though oftentimes I, I get very frustrated and, and

Monisha: 01:11:51

feel hopeless and feel despair and, and feel just like frozen.

Monisha: 01:11:55

Um, I look to those folks because they're constantly.

Monisha: 01:12:01

doing the thing, you know, they're growing food.

Monisha: 01:12:05

They're, they're teaching us, to me, they're, they're an example of what we

Monisha: 01:12:09

should be doing by like, if I could go back really quick to what I was saying

Monisha: 01:12:15

about balancing our energies and maybe Using them less on electoral politics

Monisha: 01:12:23

and more on other things, like, that's some of the other things that was in

Monisha: 01:12:27

my mind when I was saying that, like, we need to be creating mutual aid

Monisha: 01:12:31

systems to sustain general strikes, to effectively remove ourselves from the

Monisha: 01:12:36

equation of these, these oppressive systems once and for all, um, and if

Monisha: 01:12:39

we're For more information visit www.

Monisha: 01:12:40

FEMA.

Monisha: 01:12:40

gov Always focusing on electoral politics.

Monisha: 01:12:43

We're not giving our time and energy toward the creation of a new society.

Monisha: 01:12:47

We're maintaining the old one.

Monisha: 01:12:50

So yeah, food sovereignty.

Monisha: 01:12:53

You know, um, that's where.

Monisha: 01:12:56

Where my hope really lies, as well as in the resistance of people, like,

Monisha: 01:13:00

the people's just sheer will to resist and survive, um, I think that, that

Monisha: 01:13:08

to me is an incredible example, um, you know, that a lot of us who exist

Monisha: 01:13:14

within the first world, who benefit from these people's Will to survive.

Monisha: 01:13:19

Um, we need to take a lesson from them in that way and be willing to suffer and be

Monisha: 01:13:24

willing to struggle, you know, with less.

Monisha: 01:13:27

Um, and I see people willing to do that.

Monisha: 01:13:30

So,

Monisha: 01:13:32

what about you, Shiloh?

Monisha: 01:13:34

Ah,

Shiloh: 01:13:35

yeah, what gives me hope?

Shiloh: 01:13:36

Um.

Shiloh: 01:13:38

A few things big and small, um, small being, uh, small in stature, big in

Shiloh: 01:13:47

heart, my four year old gives me a lot of hope, um, they, my partner and

Shiloh: 01:13:54

I are very open and honest with them around, you know, to their level, like

Shiloh: 01:13:59

what's going on in the world and what's going on in Palestine and Palestine.

Shiloh: 01:14:04

Every day they ask me, you know, are they still fighting in Palestine?

Shiloh: 01:14:07

So if they can wake up hopeful that it's stopped, I can wake up hopeful as well.

Shiloh: 01:14:14

Um, I think, uh, the, uh, watching, watching Yemen just take matters

Shiloh: 01:14:21

into their own hands and, uh, block the Red Sea, like, that's a big, a

Shiloh: 01:14:27

big way of, um, exerting, exerting people power of like, you know,

Shiloh: 01:14:34

stopping the, the chain, um, the.

Shiloh: 01:14:37

The chain of weapons and the flow of weapons, um, and stopping the consumerism

Shiloh: 01:14:44

in Israel, uh, um, and then I can see, like, yeah, like we were talking

Shiloh: 01:14:50

about, the different actions of, of people power of, like, um, removing

Shiloh: 01:14:57

yourself through the BDS movement, um, removing your own consumerism and,

Shiloh: 01:15:02

and your own, uh, flow of, of money.

Shiloh: 01:15:07

And then also, um, yeah, if you can't.

Shiloh: 01:15:10

Or you can remove your, your consumerism and then you can also remove your labor,

Shiloh: 01:15:16

um, and like you're saying, Monisha, like, if, if we're going to ask people to remove

Shiloh: 01:15:22

their labor from the equation, then we have to have systems that support them,

Shiloh: 01:15:27

um, so that, yeah, people aren't left out.

Shiloh: 01:15:30

On Their Own, um, because we're still, yeah, living under

Shiloh: 01:15:35

capitalism, so you have to labor to live, um, so that gives me hope.

Shiloh: 01:15:41

And then also this, uh, just in the last, I think, week, maybe 10 days

Shiloh: 01:15:46

or so, the first, uh, public, uh, conscientious objector, Tal Mitnick,

Shiloh: 01:15:53

um, a teenager in Israel who's objecting to conscription into the Israeli army,

Shiloh: 01:16:01

um, That gives me hope if, yeah, maybe possibly more, more people feeling, um,

Shiloh: 01:16:10

emboldened to do that and speak out.

Shiloh: 01:16:12

Um, yeah, I think a lot of the youth give me hope always, so that's

Shiloh: 01:16:20

what's giving me hope right now.

Shiloh: 01:16:21

And, um, yeah, hopefully we can all carry that into

Jovanni: 01:16:25

2024.

Jovanni: 01:16:27

Speaking on Israel and, and, and the genocide they're committing, um, in broad

Jovanni: 01:16:34

daylight, you know, in front of cameras.

Jovanni: 01:16:36

It's astonishing because the first time I mean, this is not the first

Jovanni: 01:16:40

ethnic cleansing or first genocide that's ever happened in human history.

Jovanni: 01:16:44

But it's the first time it's actually happening in broad

Jovanni: 01:16:46

daylight in front of cameras and people actually seeing it in live.

Jovanni: 01:16:51

You know, while it's happening, you know, um, usually, um, and something

Jovanni: 01:16:55

else that, you know, they seem to not get held accountable either, you

Jovanni: 01:16:59

know, um, and that's more astonishing.

Jovanni: 01:17:02

That's, I mean, it's a huge slap in the face of humanity and

Jovanni: 01:17:05

whatever institutions and whatever values people claim they have.

Jovanni: 01:17:09

My daughter, she, she wanted me to recommend a couple of movies, a few movies

Jovanni: 01:17:13

actually, right, to, um, if you're new to the, um, if you want to know more.

Jovanni: 01:17:19

Uh, of, you know, of Palestine through, through Palestinians, through the

Jovanni: 01:17:24

eyes of Palestine, Palestinians, you know, and their experience and, and

Jovanni: 01:17:29

what they've, what they're living.

Jovanni: 01:17:31

Um, good movie is Farha.

Jovanni: 01:17:33

Farha, I watched Farha, I recommend it.

Jovanni: 01:17:36

You guys watched Farha as well, right?

Jovanni: 01:17:38

That was, that was a pretty good movie, right?

Jovanni: 01:17:40

Um, it takes place when the Nakba happened in 1948, uh, to

Jovanni: 01:17:45

a, to a girl, uh, and her family.

Jovanni: 01:17:48

What happened when the, uh, you know, the Israeli militias started showing

Jovanni: 01:17:54

up at people's doors and just started pretty much, um, um, was that, was, start

Jovanni: 01:18:00

depopulating areas, um, in Palestine.

Jovanni: 01:18:04

There's another one called Born in Gaza.

Jovanni: 01:18:06

It's a documentary.

Jovanni: 01:18:08

There's one called Omar.

Jovanni: 01:18:10

Another one is Habibi.

Jovanni: 01:18:13

Another one is 200 meters, another one is the present, 3000 nights, salt

Jovanni: 01:18:21

of the sea, salt of this sea, the crossing, pomegranates and myrrh.

Jovanni: 01:18:28

Eyes of a Thief, and all those movies you can find on Netflix.

Jovanni: 01:18:33

There's another movie that we actually screened here in San Antonio called Five

Jovanni: 01:18:37

Broken Cameras, which is pretty good.

Jovanni: 01:18:39

It's about a man who's documentary.

Jovanni: 01:18:42

We're documenting, uh, the, the occupation in his neighborhood, and each time his

Jovanni: 01:18:49

camera get broken, so he needs to get a new camera or he fixes it and whatnot.

Jovanni: 01:18:52

And to take pictures of the abuse that's happening, um, in his neighborhood and by

Jovanni: 01:18:58

the, uh, by the Israeli occupation forces.

Jovanni: 01:19:01

Um, yeah, so I think this is a good place to wrap up for the night.

Jovanni: 01:19:08

Um, I mean, I have mixed feelings about 2023.

Jovanni: 01:19:11

I don't know about you guys.

Jovanni: 01:19:12

I mean, there, there are ups and downs.

Jovanni: 01:19:15

Um, notice I didn't notice, uh, notice I, uh, the, the, the points that are

Jovanni: 01:19:20

like, you know, I, I started with are, are things that I thought was positive.

Jovanni: 01:19:24

And then, um, and then with the down note, um, obviously the tragedy that

Jovanni: 01:19:30

we're all witnessing, you know, genocide, ethnic cleansing right before our eyes.

Jovanni: 01:19:34

The people doing it, you know, with impunity while we, here in the U.

Jovanni: 01:19:37

S., flip the bill.

Jovanni: 01:19:38

I mean, it's a slap in the face, like I said, you know, to everyone, to humanity,

Jovanni: 01:19:42

to wherever, anyone who ever told us.

Jovanni: 01:19:45

Uh, that, you know, that we stand for, for human rights, for truth, for democracy,

Jovanni: 01:19:50

for this and that, you know, it's just a big humiliation, big, big snack, right?

Jovanni: 01:19:55

Uh, but we must have, you know, revolutionary optimism.

Jovanni: 01:19:59

We need to go forward.

Jovanni: 01:20:00

We need to go push, we need to intervene whenever we can.

Jovanni: 01:20:04

We need to take action whenever we can.

Jovanni: 01:20:05

We can't put our head in the sand, like Monisha said, or look the other way,

Jovanni: 01:20:09

or just act like nothing's happening.

Jovanni: 01:20:11

Uh, we need to, we need to be, we need to be protagonists.

Jovanni: 01:20:14

In this world, to be not just spectators, but protagonists.

Jovanni: 01:20:17

Um, any last comments before we depart?

Jovanni: 01:20:21

Y'all give me hope, too.

Jovanni: 01:20:23

Oh, you too.

Shiloh: 01:20:25

Same, same, just like, yeah, staying in community and, you know,

Shiloh: 01:20:30

keeping those, those heart to heart connections that we have really, uh,

Shiloh: 01:20:35

Yeah, just keep your own humanity, the psychopaths in power lost theirs

Shiloh: 01:20:42

years ago, but we have to keep our own humanity, and we do that

Shiloh: 01:20:46

through caring about one another.

Monisha: 01:20:49

Yeah,

Monisha: 01:20:51

what Tyler said.

Jovanni: 01:20:53

Interesting, uh, uh, someone told me a story, uh, over

Jovanni: 01:20:56

a weekend, over last weekend.

Jovanni: 01:20:58

Um, and, and we're talking about the same note, and it's about this elderly

Jovanni: 01:21:03

person that was sitting, you know, with a sign about, you know, protesting wars

Jovanni: 01:21:08

and, and motivation and everything.

Jovanni: 01:21:10

And he was an elderly person, right?

Jovanni: 01:21:12

And he was the only person standing on a daily basis.

Jovanni: 01:21:16

He'll, you know, he'll He'll stand in the same spot with the same

Jovanni: 01:21:20

signs, you know, and every, the same sign about ending wars and ending

Jovanni: 01:21:24

the, uh, all the wars and whatnot.

Jovanni: 01:21:28

Um, and someone stopped him and asked him, you know, why, you know, why are

Jovanni: 01:21:32

you here day in, day out, you know, you know, every day with the same sign, you

Jovanni: 01:21:35

know, and people just walk past you and they don't pay you any mind, you know.

Jovanni: 01:21:39

Um, you know, you're not changing anything.

Jovanni: 01:21:41

Why are you still doing it?

Jovanni: 01:21:42

Um, and his answer was, you know, I don't do it to change people.

Jovanni: 01:21:45

I do it so people won't change me.

Jovanni: 01:21:48

You know, that was, that was pretty fun I thought.

Jovanni: 01:21:51

But, uh, uh, well, yeah, thank you all for, for accompanying me tonight.

Jovanni: 01:21:58

Uh, thank the listeners, thank you listeners for staying with

Jovanni: 01:22:01

us, you know, throughout 2023.

Jovanni: 01:22:03

Hope to see you again in 2024.

Jovanni: 01:22:05

Um, please share us, you know, please share us with your friends,

Jovanni: 01:22:09

you know, uh, help our community here grow, help our capacity grow.

Jovanni: 01:22:13

We have, uh, multiple places where you can listen to us, you know, anywhere

Jovanni: 01:22:17

you can get, anywhere you listen to podcasts, you can find us, you can

Jovanni: 01:22:20

find us on YouTube, uh, we have an Instagram, uh, uh, do we have Instagram?

Jovanni: 01:22:26

I'm not sure, but I know we have a Telegram page, um, as

Jovanni: 01:22:28

well, you know, please sign up.

Jovanni: 01:22:31

Um, yeah, help us grow in this coming year and, um, here we try to,

Jovanni: 01:22:36

you know, we try to keep it real.

Jovanni: 01:22:38

Um, yeah, thank you.

Jovanni: 01:22:41

And, um, take care everybody.

Henri: 01:22:43

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Henri: 01:22:46

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Henri: 01:23:55

You can find our full collection of episodes at Fortress On A Hill dot com.

Henri: 01:24:01

Skepticism is one's best armor.

Henri: 01:24:04

Never forget it.

Henri: 01:24:05

We'll see you next time.

Henri: 01:24:20

I hope you'll pay attention.

Henri: 01:24:26

I will not detain you long.